Cabin 13

21| The Door to Memories

Piper blanked... replaying Reyna's comment in her head:

"Like the old Percy."

The theory threw everyone for a loop. 

Percy stood there, completely confused. "Old  Percy? Is there something I should know, Reyna?" he asked forcefully, obviously tired of being left in the dark.

Hazel quickly stood, "Come on guys, let's stay peaceful!" She shot a 'shut-up' glance at Reyna, who only scowled in return.

"Jackson, go with Will to the infirmary so he can run some more tests. Make sure you're completely healthy after that oracle death grip." When he hesitated she added, "We'll talk after that."

He frowned, "Yeah, great. Cause me and Will are on such good terms," Percy groaned sarcastically.

Will, who was following him out to keep up the charade, shot questioning glares at Hazel.

"Just stall him," she whispered. 

When they shut the door behind them, she looked rather guilt-ridden, "We're just going to keep lying to him?"

Piper shrugged helplessly, "What else can we do? To him this feels normal, no Annabeth, in fact, he doesn't realize anything at all has changed at all due to the charmspeak."

"Then undo your charmspeak spell, reverse him back to the way he was," Hazel insisted.

Piper's face fell, "I can't. I've tried everything I could think of," suddenly she chirped up, "But you! You can control the Mist, maybe you can fix it!"

Hazel frowned again, "You used the Mist and charmspeak?!" 

Piper nodded, Hazel sighed, "Charmspeak and Mist are two very different things, charmspeak convinces people of what you  want them to see, but the Mist manipulates what they  want to see. My point is what you did is two-way magic, you wanted him to forget and he wanted to forget too, so the door to his memories opened. Now you want him to remember but he sure doesn't want to, and so the door stays closed."

"Like the Doors of Death, both gates have to be open for it to work," Nico grumbled. 

Hazel nodded, "Exactly."

"How do we open his gate, get him to change his mind?" Jason asked, "I mean it's not like he knows what he's missing."

Hazel shook her head, simply saying she didn't have a clue. 

Now Reyna spoke, "We rescue Annabeth. It seems like our only sensible choice, Jackson sees her again and wants to remember what they had. Just like that, back to the old Percy."

Everyone looked to each other.

"Well no one has a better idea, so Jackson has to go on the quest to save her, but who are the other five going?'' Jason's brow raised and everyone looked to the one who had received the prophecy. 

"Nico? Who will go to the Underworld with you?"

Nico frowned, in the spotlight once more, he looked around. It had to be his choice, but as he looked around he found himself stuck. Only seven could go, and two spots were now filled...